PESHAWAR, Sept 27: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday set aside the verdict of a special court to award life sentence to a convict in a drug trafficking case and acquitted him.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Ijazul Hassan, accepted the appeal filed by the convict, Gul Ameen.

The bench observed that it was beyond comprehension that the driver of the vehicle carrying narcotics escaped in the presence of a large number of Anti-Narcotics Force personnel in a cantonment area and the appellant, who was sitting next to the driver, was apprehended.

The appellant was arrested by officials of the ANF on Jan 4, 2004, in Nowshera when he was travelling in a car bearing a fake military number plate.

The ANF claimed of recovering 223kg charas and 1kg opium with some arms and fake number plates from the car.

The appellant was convicted by a special judge of anti-narcotics on May 4, 2005.